


Cat Face Emoji

by Izupie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura and Lance are Siblings, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Veterinarians, F/M, M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), the lions are cats, the vet / cattery au that nobody asked for but I'm writing anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-09 16:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10416567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izupie/pseuds/Izupie
Summary: Keith thought his fourth and last year of his Veterinary Surgery college course would be spent training with his idol, and fully qualified Vet Shiro, in some sleepy little town called Altea. But things get infinitely more complicated when Shiro introduces him to Allura, the owner of the bizarrely named Cattery 'The Castle of Lions', and her brother Lance comes stumbling into his life. There's more to him than the confidence and bravado he wears like a mask, and Keith becomes increasingly frustrated at his growing need to figure him out. He spends much more time around cats than he ever intended."And why do you sign off every message to me with a cat face emoji?"He shrugged with a smirk. "It's a habit. But I bet it makes you smile every time you see a message from me too, right? That's the added bonus.""Lance, I swear to god, if you do the finger guns at me - "





	1. Arriving

**Author's Note:**

> What am I doing with my li f e ?? ?
> 
> This was one of those weird AU ideas that wouldn't leave me alone. Then before I knew it I had the whole cast of Voltron rearranged into this setting, and a plot had formed and Keith and Lance were surrounded by cats and pretty much I knew then I had to write it, you know?
> 
> Join me on Tumblr at @Nahterpie

There was something peaceful about watching fields roll by out of a train window. The sun was setting and casting a soft orange light over the sea of farms and fields, broken only by the long shadows of barns and hedges scattered here and there, and Keith realised his book had lain open and unread on his lap for the past half an hour. He hadn’t really paid much attention to what was out of the window for the first few hours of the trip, only occasionally looking up from what he was reading to see what station the train had stopped at, but the stops had become less and less frequent and the buildings and roads he was used to had transformed into this expanse of browns and greens and grasses. Any roads he saw now were dusty and only one car wide, not that he saw that many cards driving down them anyway. It was… pleasant.

 

Keith reached over to his laptop bag, occupying the seat next to him, and flicked on his phone screen. There should only be about twenty minutes and one more stop until he could get off the train. He replaced his phone and gave his arms a brief stretch before closing his book and putting it in the bag too, then checked the zips on his suitcase, wedged in the footwell. He knew there was a bit of ‘train etiquette’ in not taking up a whole other seat with your luggage, but he couldn’t stand a long journey sat next to a random stranger - especially if they were chatty.

 

The announcement went out across the train that the next stop would be Arus Valley, one stop before the one he needed. The train began to slow down, and some buildings came into view, though they all looked old and charming in some way; flowers were dripping out of baskets hanging on nearly every house he could see, there were some thatched roofs and he could even see coats of arms and dates stamped into the very brickwork of some of the larger buildings. It looked like an expensive place to live. Keith zipped up his lucky jacket, taking some comfort from the familiar red, white and yellow, and tried to ignore the growing sense of doubt and nerves creeping in. Next stop: his new home.

 

The next ten minutes went quickly, as Keith gathered his belongings together - his laptop bag and suitcase - and made his way over to the doors. The sound of the train on the tracks was louder by the doors, and he swayed with the motion of the carriage, holding onto a bar to steady himself while he tried to convince himself that the bar wasn’t wet, and his hands certainly weren’t sweating, and that Keith Kogane didn’t get nervous. He always said he was going to move out after he’d finished the first three years of his studies, but he even surprised himself when he applied to complete the last year of his required practical training in a tiny town he’d never heard of (and doesn’t even show up on Google Maps unless you zoom right in) in a veterinary surgery that hadn’t even opened to the public yet. The biggest consolation had been the opportunity to train under Takashi Shirogane, the veterinary surgeon student who had graduated with the highest marks out of anyone who’d ever taken the course in his college. It was certainly going to take some adjustment to the pace of life, after moving from the huge, bustling metropolis of Galra City, but if Takashi could do it, then so could he.

 

The train began to slow again and an announcement came through the speakers in a calm woman’s voice, “Now approaching, Altea Station, please take care when departing from the train, and ensure you have all your belongings with you.”

 

The doors opened and Keith heaved his suitcase onto the platform, then took a moment to readjust the laptop bag on his shoulders and pull up the handle so he could use the case on its wheels. He watched with a strange pang of sadness as the train continued its journey and sped away from view, and looking around realised he was the only one who had got off at this stop. It looked like the station itself only had two platforms; the one he was on, and one across from him that must be for the trains that ran in the opposite direction. The sun had really gone down by now, and in the half-light of twilight the place looked strangely lonely. There were multiple stations across Galra City but the main hub that the others branched off from was called Empire Station, and it was so big that a shopping centre and food court all fit inside with room to spare, and to get from one end to another required feeding your ticket through multiple ticket barriers. There wasn’t even a single ticket barrier here, and only one serving window (with its shutters already down) and a small, battered looking automated ticket machine.

 

Keith stuffed his ticket back in his pocket, since he apparently wouldn’t need it, and rolled his case over to the stairs. They looked like they’d seen better days too, but the lift down to street level was even less appealing; rust dirtied the edges, fading graffiti that had obviously been there for some years was painted across the door, and though the control panel only consisted of one button, part of it was missing and showing the electrics underneath. Stairs then.

 

To be fair, carrying his suitcase down the stairs wasn’t too much of an effort, since Keith regularly trained at his local gym, and liked to think he was getting stronger. He was skinny, but had been pleased with the shape his arms were getting. He’d already checked and was pleased to find that this small town had a leisure centre that contained a gym, though he could only imagine that it would be considerably less high-tech than he was used to. The bottom of the stairs opened out onto a street, now lit up with street lamps in the darkness, that was lined with a mix of houses and some commercial looking buildings; a small estate agents, a couple of little grocery stores, a pizza takeaway place, and a post office. A small green car was parked up outside of the post office and Keith made his way over to it, eyes flicking up to the windows in the nearby buildings where his sharp eyesight caught the movement of curtains and curious faces peeking out at him, obviously all hearing the loud clacking of his suitcase wheels on the pavement.

 

An old lady stepped out of the car at his approach, tall and thin, wearing a long cream coloured dress and a blue shawl to cover her shoulders on the slightly chilly Spring night, while wisps of grey hair curled out from under a brown hat. Her heavily wrinkled face creased into a warm smile and she offered a hand out to him to shake.

 

“Hello there, you must be Mr Keith Kogane.”

 

Keith hesitated, taken aback by her openness and manners, but then took the hand quickly hoping she wouldn’t have noticed his hesitation. He couldn’t remember the last time a complete stranger had been that pleasant in the city. “I am.” He said.

 

“Wonderful! Your train was right on time I see. My name’s Ryner, I’ll be your landlady, so if you need anything at all I’ve left my number on a note in the kitchen along with some bits and pieces of information you might need to know.” He must have given her a strange look without realising because she continued with a small laugh, “I like to greet my new tenants personally, I know that’s not usually how it’s done, but I find it cultivates a good relationship right from the start.”

 

“Oh, um, thank you.” Keith managed a shy smile.

 

“Well here are your keys - the big one is your front door and the little ones are for the windows. You’ve got a spare front door key too, but I’ve left that by the note.” She smiled warmly and gripped both his hands in her own. “The estate agents told me you’re from Galra City, so this little place must come as a shock to you, but I’m sure you will come to love Altea as much as we all do. Enjoy your new flat Mr. Kogane.”

 

And then she was folding her tall frame back into her little car and waving at him through the window before she drove away. Keith looked down at the keyring in his hand, and back up at where the car was now turning onto another street. He wondered if everyone in this town was as strange as that. Friendly certainly, but a little eccentric. His experiences with people had been mostly limited to classmates, and even they had stopped bothering with him because he was more interested in his studies than he was in socialising. Shaking off that thought Keith turned back to the post office behind him, completely in darkness, and made his way to the side of the building where there was a steel staircase. He hoisted his case back into his arms with a small sigh (more stairs) and carefully ascended, one harshly clanging footstep at a time, to the top where he tried his new key in the door and pushed it open into his new flat. He’d barely put his stuff down and flicked on a light switch when he heard the unmistakable clicking of a train on tracks getting louder and louder, a slight silence as it stopped at the station, and then more clicking and hissing as it moved on and away.

 

Cheap rent, he reminded himself, really really cheap rent.

 

The flat itself was nicely furnished, with a neutral colour scheme very typical in rentals, but Ryner obviously had a good sense of style, because the neutrals all worked well with each other, and created quite a warm atmosphere. The living area was open plan into the kitchen and a small table and chairs off to one side meant there was also a place to eat, though there wasn’t a dedicated dining room. The open plan layout had appealed to him when he saw it online, and it was even better in real life, as it gave a real sense of space. Keith wondered through with his case into a small corridor and opened the first door to the master bedroom, that was now his room, gratefully putting his luggage on the double bed, and peeked into the en-suite bathroom. He then took a brief look at the spare room and the main bathroom, appreciating the clean and tidy appearance of it all. He wasn’t entirely sure whether it was in such good condition because Ryner had been lucky with tenants, or whether nobody had wanted to rent the place since she refurbed it because of the train station next door. Maybe that was why she was so pleased to meet him, he reasoned.

 

Keith had put his spare key in his bedside drawer, and lay down on the couch to read the note his new landlady had left him. She’d provided some useful information about the appliances and some general notes about the flat, and put that the post box outside the post office is collected at 7am every morning, the shop itself opens at 9am and that the trains run from 6am to 11pm (she apologised for any noise related disruptions any of that might cause). He couldn’t imagine any of that being a problem, since he’d be getting up early every morning anyway for work, and he didn’t really need much sleep, so he always went to bed late. The best thing about the note was the list of takeaways in the town, and their phone numbers, and Keith made sure to put them into his cell phone. For tonight he figured he’d just take a quick walk across the street to the pizza place and enjoy a pizza while he unpacked, not that he had much to unpack besides some clothes and some toiletries. The heaviest thing in his suitcase was his PS4, which he was already looking forward to hooking up to the tv that his landlady had provided.

 

Once he’d eaten and unpacked, Keith sat down at his table and made a list of things he’d need to buy the next day. He was going to be starting work officially at the Voltron Veterinary Surgery on Monday, the day of its grand opening to the public, so he had one day left to buy essentials like cooking utensils and crockery, and some cupboard and freezer essential foods. But he knew that Takashi also lived above the surgery, so he wanted to introduce himself to his new boss and see if he needed a hand setting anything up, not that he doubted he had everything in hand. He was practically a legend on his course at college, since all his professors seemed to have a never-ending supply of ‘Shiro Stories’, and though Keith was always proud of his grades he couldn’t ever seem to match Takashi’s level. In all honesty, he couldn’t wait to actually meet him. He’d graduated with the highest marks anyone had ever gotten on his course when Keith was in his second year, then went into veterinary surgery in the city but strangely moved away to this town to open his own surgery after about a year. It had taken him nearly a year after that to get everything sorted and built, which Keith was hugely pleased with, since that had given him the time he needed to request his practical training in fourth year to be completed here.

 

Keith had always loved animals, and veterinary surgery was the only career he had ever wanted to do. Luckily his dad was entirely supportive of any endeavours he put his mind to, and had been so pleased and proud to have Keith go to college and work towards becoming a surgeon. The first three years of his course were spent mainly in the classroom, working on theory and essays, but the fourth is a year spent training with a fully qualified veterinary surgeon. There was only one person he wanted to train under, and that’s how he ended up in Altea, moving into his own flat and trying to adult. His dad used to tell him adulting is hard, he thought with a small chuckle, and he was only now beginning to appreciate that.

 

At least now he had a plan; introduce himself to Takashi Shirogane, see if he needs any help, then go to the local stores and pick up some essentials. Easy.


	2. The Surgery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Keith's first morning in the town of Altea, and he's sure he's got it all planned out. Meet his idol, prep the surgery, get some bits for his new apartment... Nothing could possibly upset these plans right?

It had been a long time since Keith had slept in an awkward position on a couch. He sat up with a groan, ran a hand through his messy black hair and then slammed it on his phone to shut off the screeching alarm. The empty box of last night’s pizza was open, and now beginning to smell, on the small coffee table in front of him, and he was still wearing his clothes from the day before. What a mess. He hadn’t intended on sleeping on the couch; he’d only curled up on there to get comfy while he browsed Facebook and let his pizza go down, which in retrospect was obviously a bad decision after a day spent travelling. At least he’d remembered to set an alarm. Six in the morning in the city was a time when everyone would be getting up and ready to catch a bus or train into work, or just catch a quick breakfast from somewhere while it was freshly made, but Keith opened his living room curtains and peeked out onto the street outside to complete silence and stillness. There was nobody cycling past his window, or a steady stream of taxis beginning their morning lifts to the stations. In fact, all the houses he could see mostly still had their lights off and curtains shut.

 

His first morning in the town of Altea.

 

Keith yawned and stretched as he got up, wincing as his muscles protested at the uncomfortable position he’d had them in all night, and blamed his tiredness on the couch too - he was normally an excellent morning person. His dad used to say he was annoyingly good at getting up in the morning, though Keith did also put some of that down to a fresh cup of strong coffee (which still looked good next to Thace’s two, both large, before he could even get a ‘good morning’ out of him).  Thinking about coffee only reminded Keith that he hadn’t packed any kind of groceries, and he frowned at the kettle on the counter surface by the sink, as if it’s inability to make him his hot drink offended him. He’d only brought one suitcase with him, besides his laptop bag, and he’d only just managed to cram his clothes in there, groceries had seemed like such a triviality at the time - he just assumed he’d get some when he got to Altea. Which meant no coffee, and no breakfast. He sighed and put the pizza box into the trash, then moved into the bedroom to have a shower. Planning had always been something of a weakness for Keith, because he often let his heart rule over his head and impulsively jumped into things without really taking the time to stand back and consider them first. He tried so hard to make up for that as he grew older; attempting to make better plans that he intended to stick to, and he made an effort to consider the consequences of his actions. But he just couldn’t help his impatience and lack of forethought sometimes… Which is kind of what happened when he decided to take up this job, he thought letting his frown deepen at the doubts and fears lurking in his mind.

 

After a hot shower (bordering on scalding) Keith felt much more alert. He was dressed in some smart skinny black jeans, and a black fitted shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He wouldn’t be wearing scrubs today, since they weren’t going to open the surgery until tomorrow, so he wanted to make a good impression wearing something smart. He eyed up his favourite white, black and red boots, still by the door where he’d left them the night before, and discounted them as appropriate idol-meeting shoes, thinking he’d opt for something a little less flashy. There was just enough time to check his hair in the mirror (still kind of messy, and maybe starting to get a little too long?) and give it a quick brush through with his fingers, before Keith checked he’d turned all the lights off and grabbed his keys and money from the counter.

 

His favourite boots were as comfortable as always, and made a satisfying clunk with each step of the steel steps down from his apartment. The ‘less flashy’ and far more appropriate shoes had been abandoned in favour of comfort and his personal style. He had no will power. He loved those boots. No regrets.

 

He had seen that there were two little stores just down the road from his apartment, but as Keith walked closer he could see only one of them was open this early on a Sunday. It was a little shabbier than the other and a faded sign in the window read ‘Varkon’s General Store’, but he needed to buy something for breakfast, so with a small shrug he entered.

 

After already getting a good impression of Altea Keith wasn’t at all surprised by the little tinkling bell that announced his entrance with a chime. A small counter was just beside the door and a large middle-aged man was stood behind it sorting newspapers into piles. His balding head added to the overall roundness of him, mostly due to the man’s large gut, and he also sported a carefully maintained goatee style beard around his chin. He looked up with undisguised interest, and maybe even a touch of suspicion, as Keith walked inside. Keith smiled awkwardly at the man as he passed and made his way further into the store, looking at what it had to offer in the way of something edible for breakfast. He was just considering some pre-packed pastries (that wouldn’t even be a patch on the fresh stuff he could get in the city) when he felt the sensation of being watched; the man from the counter was at the end of the aisle, arms crossed and staring at him intensely.

 

“’Ey kid, you looking for anything in particular? Not seen you around here before.”

 

Keith pointed to the pack of pastries in his left hand, and tried to keep the irritation at being called ‘kid’ out of his voice - he knew he was fairly short and had a pale youthful looking face and complexion, he got mistaken for someone younger quite often. “Just… trying to buy something for breakfast. I actually just moved into town last night.”

 

The man looked at his watch pointedly, only serving to irritate Keith further. “Bit early for someone who just moved into town last night isn’t it?”

 

“Well, no.” Keith raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t pack any food with me and I usually get up this early, and - actually you know what, I don’t need to explain any of this to you just so I can buy some breakfast.”

 

“Look kid, this here is Varkon’s General Store and I’m the man who is Varkon.” He pointed a stubby thumb at himself. “Although technically I’m Varkon the Third, since this was actually my grandpa’s store… But now it’s mine, and it’s my business to know everything that goes on in my business. That includes mysterious strangers who look like they’re up to no good.” Varkon drew himself back to his full height, which was still short, and folded his arms once more.

 

Keith couldn’t help the choking sound of disbelief from coming out of his mouth. “Y-you’re kidding? I literally just walked in! Agh, forget it.” He slammed the croissant packet back onto the shelf and marched to the front door, irritation simmering under his skin. He pulled the door open with a force that made the little bell chime fiercely, but just before he could storm out fully he nearly walked straight into a person trying to come through the door in the other direction. The person yelped in surprise and nearly tripped over their own feet trying to take a hasty step backwards.

 

“Oh - sorry about that, you okay?” Keith offered a steadying hand, but the girl he’d nearly bumped into had recovered and shook her head wildly. She was very tall, but stocky and well-built, with short brown hair, and a complexion the colour of clay. Huge hooped earrings hung from both of her ears.

 

“No no please, the fault is all mine!” She had a soft, almost gentle voice, even though she was clearly flustered, and motioned with her arms for him to continue before her. Keith couldn’t decide whether she was extremely polite, or just terribly socially awkward. He nodded and thanked her, not wanting to refuse her gesture by trying to be polite himself, and continued through the door.

 

It was unfortunate that his anger had evaporated with the encounter with the girl at the door, because hunger was now seeping into its place. He sighed and decided to make his way to the surgery anyway. He probably shouldn’t have lost his temper at the store and just bought the damn things, regardless of how rude the owner was. Well he’d just have to start the day on an empty stomach, and find something nice to have for lunch instead - as long as his stomach didn’t rumble in front of Takashi it would be fine. Got to stay professional.

 

It didn’t take too long to get to the Voltron Veterinary Surgery, but Keith suspected it didn’t take too long to get anywhere in this small town. He’d enjoyed seeing a bit more of his new home as he walked anyway. The place was pretty in a way; flowers and trees were beginning to bloom and blossom as it got further into Spring, and there was a pleasant scent of nature in the light breeze. The thick smell of fumes and drainage, like something dank and decaying, always hung in the air of Galra City. It wasn’t until he’d arrived in Altea that he really noticed the absence of all the cloying smells and noise that he had grown so used to. Keith found himself smiling on his walk, enjoying the peace and the just… niceness of it all. There was only one car outside the surgery and he guessed that one belonged to Takashi; it was a sporty model of car and practically gleamed in the morning sunshine. Keith suddenly paused with a hand hovering at the door, nerves making his stomach twist even more than the hunger, and tension seeped into the sense of peace he had just attained on the walk there. Was he really good enough to train with the best? What if they didn’t get along? Or he made a terrible first impression? Keith knew that socialising wasn’t exactly his strong point. He straightened his shirt, took a deep breath and knocked on the door, only having to wait for a couple of painfully loud heartbeats before it opened.

 

“Hi there, you must be Keith right?” Takashi Shirogane gave a welcoming smile. He was clearly muscular under his closely fitting long sleeved white top, and he maintained a fashionably casual air by teaming it with black sweatpants, his hair was cut into a modern style of shorter black at the sides and a white longer piece at the front, and his friendly expression was severed harshly by a long pink scar cutting across his pale features. Keith only realised he was balking at it when the man made a small cough and rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. He certainly hadn’t got a scar like that in any of the pictures on display at the college. Keith thrust a hand in front of him for Takashi to shake.

 

“Keith Kogane. Pleased to meet you.”

 

“Nice to finally meet you too, Keith. I’m Takashi Shirogane, but you can just call me Shiro - everyone else does.” He took Keith’s hand and shook it heartily. “When I got an email from Professor Ulaz telling me that he’d got a new favourite student I was very interested in who you might be. When he asked if you could train with me, how could I say no!” Shiro’s smile was warm and calming, and Keith found his trepidation and nerves melting away.

 

“Thanks again for letting me spend my year of training with you Tak- Shiro. You don’t know how much this opportunity means to me.” His grey-blue eyes locked onto Shiro’s, and he hoped the sincerity in his voice came through.

 

Shiro motioned for him to follow. “You’re welcome Keith. I’m hoping we both get to really learn from each other and build a great partnership. By the sounds of it, you might be teaching me a thing or two!” Keith followed Shiro into the waiting room of the surgery and his senses were assaulted by the sharp tang of new paint and steriliser. The whole place was shining and ready for patients. The walls were a pure kind of white, with colourful posters about animal care and welfare stuck on it here and there, the chairs were neatly arranged against the side wall of the small room and the reception desk was already set up with a computer unit. Keith had imagined that he would be needed to help put the last finishing touches in, but it looked like Shiro had already done it all.

 

“Wow,” Keith breathed, “it looks amazing.”

 

“This is the reception desk and main waiting area.” Shiro was practically beaming. “Our patients and their owners will be seated here while they wait to be called in through that door over there,” he pointed to a white door across the room with frosted glass at the top, “so I want this part to stay interesting and welcoming. I’m hoping that once we get some interest and locals signed up with us we can invite the children to do some artwork for our walls too.”

 

“That would be… kind of cute actually.” Keith agreed a little surprised.

 

“Right? And through here is where we’ll be working.” They both went through the door Shiro had pointed at before, into a small corridor. Another couple of chairs lined the side. “These are for owners whose animals might be having an urgent operation, or if any extra family members want to wait outside while we do any examinations. It can be stressful enough for them to wait without having to face everyone in the main waiting room.” Shiro’s voice was soft, but it still had such a presence, as if he could speak at this volume in a room full of people and they would stop talking to listen to him. He had really thought about everything, and was so considerate to the people who would be coming in. Keith was beginning to see why he graduated with such high marks, and why his professors still held him such high regard, and any regrets he had been holding onto about moving to Altea and taking up this job were quickly fading away.

 

While Keith had been thinking Shiro had opened the first of two doors in the corridor, and he hurried to follow him inside.

 

“This is Exam Room 1 - we’ll mostly be working together in here at first, just so I can see what you know. It can be daunting moving into a fully working environment straight away after so much time spent in the classroom and observed training, so I’ll really only be here for support and just to make sure you’re coping with it all okay. I don’t doubt you’ve got all the knowledge after what Ulaz told me about you.” Shiro looked at him with a supportive smile, and Keith spoke back in what he hoped was a voice filled with confidence.

 

“Yeah of course, no problem.” He looked around at the little room with wonder, unable to believe he would actually be working there the next day. It was clean and tidy, with all the surfaces shining with newness. A large examination table was the focal point of the room, a set of animal weighing scales sat nearby, and every wall was covered in all manner of cupboards and cabinets, a huge sink was also nestled into one of the surfaces and a small collection of instruments already lay on a metal tray on wheel. It looked perfect. A door was almost partially hidden from view by a cabinet and Shiro looked at it and then reached into his pocket.

 

“That’s the door to the drug store - it’s locked automatically and opened by a code on the keypad there. When you’ve got it memorised you can get rid of this paper,” he handed Keith a small piece of paper with a four digit code scribbled onto it, “but I’ll change it every so often and let you know the new code. The same kind of door, with the same code, leads into it from Exam Room 2 next door too.”

 

Keith nodded and Shiro continued.

 

“Exam Room 2 is the same set up as this one, just a mirror image of it. I’m hoping that after we’ve worked together for a while you can move into Exam Room 2 and we can work side by side - we’ll be able to see twice as many patients and I’ll only be an interconnecting cupboard away if you need anything.” They both moved back into the reception area as Shiro talked, Keith hanging on his every word. “Oh, Exam Room 2 also doubles up as our operating theatre, but we’re really only equipped to deal with minor surgeries and emergencies. There’s a much larger surgery in Arus, the next town over, but it’s about twenty minutes away, so any surgical emergencies will have to be performed here or we can at least stabilise the patient so that they can make it to Arus.”

 

Shiro stood back by the front door, with both hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, seemingly unaware that Keith was struggling to cling to a thread of professionalism and remember all the information he was being fed and not just gawk at everything he was seeing and not ask Shiro how he got that scar and not gush about how much he’d wanted to meet him and how he was everything he’d imagined.

 

Something of his internal screaming must have shown in his eyes because Shiro suddenly moved across to him to clasp him firmly on the shoulder. “I know it’s difficult when you’re still training and you’re just thrust out into the real world to practice on real animals in a real surgery, believe me, I know it’s tough, but you’ll be great. I can already tell that you’ll do a good job Keith.”

 

Keith cleared his throat a little. “Thanks Shiro.”

 

“Here’s a piece of advice; patience yields focus. Remember that and you can’t go far wrong.” Shiro released his shoulder.

 

Keith almost laughed. He was pretty sure patience was very low on the list of things he was good at, but he nodded anyway. Shiro smiled.

 

“Well, now your tour’s over do you have any questions?”

 

“Actually, I wondered if you wanted any help setting up, but it looks like you’ve got that part covered already.”

 

“Oh yeah,” Shiro’s smile became sheepish, “I got a little carried away last night. I tend to get caught up in my work, and I didn’t even realise I’d spent the whole night here until the sun started rising.” He laughed.

 

“What, the whole night? As in, you didn’t actually have any sleep?” Keith raised his eyebrows in surprise. What kind of energy did this man run on?

 

“Yeah, but it’s not a problem. At least now it’s all ready for tomorrow, though I appreciate your offer of help anyway.” Shiro paused. “Actually… there’s a cattery in town that I’m hoping we can work closely with, so I was going to meet the owner today and see if we can build the foundation of a partnership between us. We don’t have much room for animals to recover so if we can send our animals to recover in their pens, they can send us any cats they receive that need medical attention; things like strays or any unwanted pets. I was going to go myself, but now I think it would make it even better if we both went to represent the surgery. What do you think?”

 

Keith considered this plan, finding it made good sense, and he didn’t think that it wouldn’t impact too much on the errands he had to run for the rest of the day. If they could foster a good working relationship with the owner of the cattery it would be beneficial to them both.

 

“Sounds great.” Keith agreed, letting Shiro lead the way.

 

At first he assumed they’d be using the car, but was pleasantly surprised when Shiro turned out of the surgery in the opposite direction. He guessed everywhere in town really was in walking distance of each other. They chatted amicably about college on the way; about how many stories the professors would tell about Shiro, even the embarrassing ones, and about Keith’s studies. But Keith couldn’t help but notice his new boss stayed firmly away from what he had done in the year after graduating, and didn’t offer any kind of explanation to how he received such a dramatic scar. Keith didn’t want to ask. The walk didn’t take too long though, and he hadn’t even noticed they were approaching until Shiro began to slow down. The building before them was huge, but was all on ground level, so wasn’t overly noticeable from a distance. It was sleek and modern in design, with bright orange bricks that suggested it was fairly new.

 

They were about to walk down the little path connecting the front door to the sidewalk when a phone ringing made him jump and Shiro took a cell phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen and grimaced.

 

“Ah it’s the estate agents, sorry Keith, I need to take this. Can you go on ahead and explain I’ll be there as soon as I finish this call? - Hello? Yes, this is Takashi….” As Shiro stayed at the end of the path Keith tried not to let his discomfort show. He didn’t really know how he was going to introduce himself, or who was going to open the door, and he didn’t cope very well in situations like these - Shiro was obviously far more comfortable around people than he was. With a steadying breath, Keith finished the walk up the path and took the couple of steps up to the front door. He rang the doorbell and for a full thirty seconds nothing happened. He frowned and was about to give up and go back to Shiro when the door was flung backwards.

 

“Welcome to the Castle of Lions!” A mildly harassed voice almost yelled at him from the doorway, belonging to a male about Keith’s age. He was tall and skinny, with a messy mop of dark brown hair and a light tawny bronze skin tone, making the blue of his eyes really stand out; they reminded Keith of the darkest deepest part of the ocean. He was wearing a khaki coloured jacket over a white t-shirt and jeans, though Keith couldn’t help but notice all of it was covered in a layer of cat hair. It was only when the stranger attempted to brush some of the fur from his clothing (futile, cat hair sticks to everything), ran a quick hand through his hair (which only made it somehow messier) and leaned against the one side of the doorframe that Keith realised he had been staring. The boy continued in a more level voice. “I mean, welcome to the Castle of Lions. How can I - we - help you today?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love socially awkward Keith.  
> The next chapter is already under way and it is literally so much fun to write - omg Lance and Keith almost write themselves.


End file.
